TV Review: ‘Lucifer: Vegas With Some Radish’

Chloe’s birthday, ex-wife Candy missing, and Lucifer heading to Vegas with Ella in tow? Sounds like a smashingly good time, doesn’t it? Well, no more dawdling, let’s get into the meat and potatoes (or is it po-tah-toes?) of this week’s Lucifer.

Rarely can you go wrong with opening up with a birthday celebration and Chloe Decker gets a few surprises as the precinct ring in hers with a bit of department singing. Yet it’s Ella’s contribution—a strapping male stripper—that steals the spotlight. Unfortunately, Lucifer isn’t long for the birthday shenanigans as he gets a call from the Vegas PD about his two-week wifey, Candy, mysteriously disappearing. Still feeling loyalty towards her, Lucifer is ready to head back to Sin City to track Candy down. He’s not alone though as Ella volunteers to accompany him on the trip out of the goodness of her heart. Or not. Thus the two of them head out, leaving Chloe disappointed and with a whole bunch of questions.

When you hit Vegas, you gotta play some Blackjack.

So what do we get on our jaunt to Vegas with Lucifer and Ella? Candy’s disappearance and two bodies that just so happen to line up with singer’s past is but window dressing—though a part of their undercover sting to call out the wife of a loan shark (Lauren Holly in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment) is a peek into Ella’s past. It’s not her lock-picking and card-counting days of yore that’s key, nor how much of a knockout she is dressed to the nines. Rather it’s a small slip of the tongue where she mentions how some of her past deeds were the only way to quiet the voices that piqued my interest. We’ve dipped a toe into a piece of Ella’s past last season with her brother as well as her own hints to Lucifer when speaking about her faith, but there’s more to this story and it’s one I expect we will revisit sometime in the future.

Speaking of the past, we get the details on Lucifer and Candy’s courtship…as it was. Despite Candy picking his pocket and trying to twist his heartstrings with a true but awfully acted sob story, she and Lucifer bond immediately, with the Morningstar opening up to her about Chloe. If you’ll remember, this was about the time he discovered that God had put Chloe in his path as part of the long game. Candy didn’t understand the complete history of how things turned out but the two bonded enough for Lucifer to pay off the debts Candy’s father had in order to keep club Fletcher’s, but in turn, she became his wife to discourage the burgeoning relationship between Lucifer and Chloe. Turns out Fletcher’s is also behind her disappearance this time around as someone wants to kill for the club’s ownership. The culprit is the bartender whose personal debts drove him to murder.

Chloe turns to Dr. Linda to help her deal with her abandonment issues regarding Lucifer.

As fun as hanging out in Vegas with Lucifer, Ella, and Candy is, the real emotional strength of “Vegas with Some Radish” lies back in LA where Chloe leans on Dr. Linda as she tries to resolve the feelings of disappointment as Lucifer’s nowhere to be seen on her special day. Even though we’ve had mentions of the whole will they/won’t they thing between Lucifer and Chloe, it’s only been in passing. The lack of discussion of that giant elephant in the room that are mutual feelings of a depth neither dares make the first move on is both frustrating and, from personal experience, maddeningly understandable. Even as Chloe and Dr. Linda do a bit of drinking in Lucifer’s penthouse, the former confesses that she’s over anything romantic happening between her and Lucifer. Though Dr. Linda sees right through an emotional Chloe’s words, she offers powerful words of her own. “There’s no expiration date on the process of healing,” she says, understanding that Chloe’s words and feelings are two completely different things.

Alas, as with all trips to Vegas, one must return home. And Lucifer does, finding Dan and Dr. Linda knocked out on his couch while Chloe has taken up residence in his bed. Taking his cue from some lessons from Candy and Ella, Lucifer offers the semi-sleeping Chloe a confession, admitting why he kept the Vegas trip from her. She catches part of his monologue though he still holds something back as if part of him knew she was awake. Now, that’s not to say the pair don’t have a moment, they do. Forging the bullet Chloe fired into his leg all the way back in season one into a pendant of sorts, Lucifer presents it on a necklace as Chloe’s birthday gift. Though his expected address of the gift is crude and textbook Lucifer, the underlying emotions between the two, captured in a few heartbeats of their eyes meeting before Chloe moves in for a hug, promises that things aren’t over between them. Emotions that strong just don’t go away, especially when the person eliciting them is the one you’re closest to.

Post Script

One of these days, my championing the Lucifer/Chloe ‘ship (me and thousands of others, that is) will pay off as the two quit beating around the bush and go for it. Before that happens though I would like to see the continued focus on strengthening Chloe’s character, something I think the writers have yet to really do this season. This week was a good start, just continue on that path and show us Chloe’s potential.

Speaking of potential, it was good to see Ella get a bit more spotlight. With Lucifer not being a true ensemble show, sometimes our supporting characters don’t get to shine. The tease of Ella’s backstory has been touched on last season but, as pointed out, her slip of the voices hints at something much darker. Let’s hope we find out what that could be. Also, was that flirtation with Detective Long a tease on a possible Ella-centric plotline? Probably not but I wouldn’t say no to it.

Darryl Jasper

From a young age Darryl embraced everything that was geek. His first true memory of the cinemas was seeing the line wrapped around the building for “The Empire Strikes Back”. The light sabers and the Force had him hooked. Though it remains his favorite sci-fi creation, Star Wars was only the beginning. Star Trek soon followed and his obsession with the various iterations of the Enterprise took him to an actual convention. Between these mega franchises, Darryl enjoyed all the geek cartoons of his era: Transformers, GI Joe, M.A.S.K. Bravestarr, Silverhawks, Voltron, and the like. An avid reader, it wasn’t long before his sci-fi and fantasy partiality in movies transferred to his reading. Star Trek was the beginning and in a strange twist, led him back to the novelized world of Star Wars. It has been non-stop geek since. Though comic books and action figures have all been a part of his menu, movies, television, and books remain his primary focus. Oh, and he’s a pretty avid gamer to boot (PS3).